Officers in fatal City Heights shooting ID'd

CITY HEIGHTS  Two officers involved in the fatal shooting of a San Diego man who wounded a police dog with a machete and then swung the weapon at an officer were identified Tuesday.

Officer Kelly Copeland Jr., with 6 and 1/2 years at the department, and Officer Javier Morales, with 5 and 1/2 years, shot at Ja Ma Lo Day, a 21-year-old Burmese refugee, after he swung his weapon toward another officer in City Heights.

Police were called to a home on Menlo Avenue, south of University Avenue, where an "agitated" man was threatening to kill family members with a knife, police Lt. Mike Hastings said Monday.

Officers arrived to find the man holding a knife and a stick. He refused to follow their commands, threatened to kill them and grabbed a machete from the home, Hastings said.

Police weren't able to subdue the man with a Taser or a police dog. When he swung his weapon at police, the two officers shot him. Day suffered multiple gunshot wounds and died at the home.

The dog, an 8 1/2-year-old German shepherd named Nando, was treated at a veterinary hospital for his wound, which required several staples, and is expected to make a full recovery, Hastings said. He has been a San Diego police dog since August 2008 and was set to retire this month.

A friend of Day's family, Wendy Gelernter, said Day was on medication and had previously had psychotic episodes. He had been placed in a county mental hospital after two minor run-ins with police during such episodes.